GRIZZLY PEAK |
Alameda County
|
April 29, 1924: "Only general co-operation of all citizens can the danger of fire from dry grass and weeds be eliminated. The Chamber of Commerce is actively participating in the work of the Contra Costa Hills Fire Protection Committee, which has completed a dirt road to Grizzly Peak, where it will install, with the co-operation of the city of Berkeley, a steel fire watch tower on the summit. The committee, however, has thus far received only a fraction of the $25,000 which is necessary to carry out its program of fire protection, and it again warns all the Eastbay cities of the fire menace which will soon be upon them." (Oakland Tribune)
May 20, 1924: "One exhibit at Berkeley will interest everyone in the Eastbay. It is a small house, built in mission style and furnished with large windows on all sides. When the fair closes this house will be moved to the top of Grizzly Peak to be used by the watchman and in the interests of protecting the community from fire. That house on Grizzly Peak will serve everyone in the Eastbay. It will be one important outpost in the line of defense." (Oakland Tribune)
June 7, 1924: "A.E. Frost, inspector of the state board of foresters, will supervise construction of a steel lookout tower on Grizzly Peak back of Berkeley as a protection against fires." (Gridley Herald)
July 2, 1924: "The tower from which a fire warden will scan the hill regions surrounding Berkeley for any evidence of grass blazes rose today on its lofty location at the summit of Grizzly Peak.
Workmen have been engaged for a week in getting material in readiness. D.A. Frost of the state forestry department is supervising the erection of the steel tower. Adjoining the tower the fire warden's house which will form his home during the danger season is being erected.
The tower will be completed by the end of the week while the warden's house will not be in readiness for several weeks." (Oakland Tribune)
July 22, 1924: "Within a fortnight a siren planned for the lookout tower on Grizzly Peak will be ready to sound warnings of fires to the residents of Berkeley.
The first load of poles for the joint use of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company for running their lines from the Wildcat Canyon pumping station to the summit of Grizzly was delivered yesterday. Managers B.A. Glover and J.H. Pape of the two public service companies have announced that they will rush the work of installing power and telephone lines.
Work is being rushed on the fire warden's house adjoining the fire tower, where Glen Gadbury, state forester, who will serve as watchman on the park, will be in charge." (Oakland Tribune)
July 27, 1924: "Opening of the fire warden's house on the summit of Grizzly Peak to afford a permanent means of protection for residents of the college city is scheduled for the first week in August. Contractors are rushing work on the house at the present time under the direction of Glen Gadbury of the state forest service, who will be charge there." (Oakland Tribune)
August 1, 1924: "telephone service with Grizzly Peak was established today in Berkeley.
Residents of the college city will now be able to communicate with a deputy state fire warden stationed on the highest point in the Berkeley hills. The telephone number is Berkeley 7210. The fire warden is Glen Gadbury, who will take up his station in a warden's house now being completed on the peak.
Gadbury will survey the hill region from the 35-foot high lookout tower on Grizzly Peak and will be in constant communication with the state and local authorities in his watch fir blazes." (Oakland Tribune)
October 9, 1924: "Plans for making effective the work of the fire fighting in the Eastbay hills are being prepared by the Contra Costa hills fire protection committee.
A series of instruction and demonstration meetings will be held during the winter months at which the fire wardens will receive training in fire combat leadership.
The committee reports a deficit of $1000 entailed in the construction of the lookout tower on Grizzly Peak and an attempt will be made to gain further financial support from the Eastbay communities to carry out the work of the committee." (Oakland Tribune)
January 11, 1925: "Protesting that the share allotted to them is out of proportion to that allotted to other cities, the Piedmont city council has refused to take action in response to the appeal of the Contra Costa Hill Fire Protective Association for $1000, made to them by Secretary Charles Keeler of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, and Professor W. Metcalf of the state board of forestry at the University of California.
Keeler and Metcalf claimed that the association was $2000 in debt on the new tower constructed last year on Grizzly Peak as a lookout station. They stated that they had asked $3500 from the City of Berkeley toward the debt and maintenance, and wanted $1000 from Piedmont. They also claimed that the tower had protected Piedmont from invasion by hill fires several times during the last summer, and that the city should pay its share.
Mayor Oliver Ellsworth, in response to Keeler and Metcalf, stated that they believed $1000 too much to ask of Piedmont in proportion to Berkeley's share, "We have taken extensive steps to protect our own border," replied Ellsworth, "and do not feel indebted to the association for additional protection. We are willing to help out in safeguarding the hills from fire, but do not feel that we can pay $1000 for the small area of Piedmont's hill border lines. Piedmont is entirely surrounded by Oakland, and until that city takes some steps to protect itself, we are not going to fight their fires, and spend money protecting their borders."
Keeler claimed that though Oakland's attention had been directed to the existing condition, that they had not taken any steps or showed any interest in the situation. Both Metcalf and Keeler claim that the hills behind Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont constitute a serious menace during the dry season such as the one just passed, and endanger those cities.
Fire trails have been built along Piedmont's border line, ample water tanks installed and every protection taken by city authorities." (Oakland Tribune)
July 12, 1925: "Harry Piper, war hero and government student in the Berkeley police department, is the watchman of the fire tower on Grizzly Peak. To him has been entrusted the responsibility of averting another serious blaze such as that which swept down from the hills on September 17, 1923.
Piper has moved his family to the tile house with its Mission architecture adjoining the 40-foot fire tower which rises from the highest "bump" on old Grizzly's rugged contour. Besides Mrs. Piper there are three small Pipers. Added to the family menage since the Pipers moved to the hilltops are two goats which furnish milk for the babies of the household. For living on Grizzly Peak is pioneering in every sense of the word, and there are no regular deliveries of the recognized commodities necessary for a household. Water which the Piper use must be hauled by the head of the family eight miles from the nearest ranch house, and then carried from the end of the automobile road a quarter mile up a steep grade to the watchman's house. Trees are felled to furnish logs for the big fireplace which radiates warmth to dispel the chill of the fogs which hover over the hilltops." (Oakland Tribune)
October 6, 1925: "Fanned by a brisk wind, a grass fire near the San Pablo dam of the East Bay Water company got beyond control of workmen, who were burning brush, and swept upward through the eastern slope of the canyon this afternoon.
The lookout at Grizzly Peak watch tower reported that the fire had gained considerable headway and was burning over a considerable area.
A crew of men was dispatched with the fire warden of the water company to extinguish the blaze." (Oakland Tribune)
October 15, 1925: "During the summer the watchman of Grizzly Peak has discovered many fires working their way through the grass, advancing upon the cities of the Eastbay. And the watchman has sounded the alarm, summoned the fighters, so that all that was burned was grass.
There is no way to tell how much money has been saved. We know, though, that before there was a watchman and an organized fighting force there came a fire which moved right into Berkeley and, for a time threatened a great part of the Eastbay.
It is well to consider the services of that watchman for he may not be there another year. The State Board of Forestry is not impressed with the support given by the communities of this section other than Berkeley. In particular it believes Oakland and Piedmont have been negligent in that they have not contributed to maintain a second watching post farther along in the line of hills. Berkeley, a private organization of nature lovers, the University of California, the water company, and the State Forester have been the guardians on Grizzly Peak. Oakland and Piedmont have established water buckets on the hillside roads, have cut a firebreak or two, and have equipped motor apparatus to make rapid trips to the woods. They have paid some attention to the problem of extinguishing the blaze once it starts but have not cooperated with the campaign to prevent fires or discover them in their incipiency.
In the winter months to come it might be well to consider the value of lookout stations in the hills and decided whether or not we wish the one we have removed because of a lack of municipal support." (Oakland Tribune)
September 9, 1926: "The ascent of Grizzly Peak, back of the University of California, is not particularly trying, but on warm sunny days is apt to build up a consuming thirst. Hikers will find no water at the summit of the peak, where the lookout station is established. But water can be secured at the foot of the final spur, where the fire patrol road, from, Euclid avenue ends. It would be a great help to hikers and others if signs were posted warning of this condition and pointing out the source of water at the foot of the final peak." (Oakland Tribune)
March 16, 1933: "Despite the fact that state aid has been withdrawn. Berkeley will not relax its vigil in the hills as safeguard against recurrence of the fire of 1923.
City Manager Hollis Thompson today placed before the Contra Costa Hills fire protection committee and members of the City Council necessity for appropriation of funds to defray complete salary expense of a lookout on Grizzly Peak.
In a communication yesterday from E.B. Pratt, state forester, city officials were apprised that a cut in the budget of the state forestry department will eliminate state aid being given toward salaries of lookouts on Grizzly Peak and Round Top. According to City Manager Thompson, a lookout will be maintained on Grizzly Peak, while a similar service for Round Top will probably be abandoned unless the City of Oakland, which has not borne expense in the past, will aid.
Lookouts have been maintained on both Grizzly Peak and Round Top for a five month period between June 1 and November 1, with the state paying $50 toward monthly salaries of $135 during fire season and $100 during other periods." (Oakland Tribune)
April 13, 1960: "Grizzly Peak's lookout station, highest structure in the hills, will be razed. It was built in 1924, the year after Berkeley's disastrous fire.
Maintenance of the 60-foot tower and one-story home for the fire watcher is no longer needed, Acting City Manager William Hunrick Jr. told the city council last night.
He explained the surrounding area is now built up and the East Bay Regional Parks and other fire districts are affording needed protection.
Cost of maintaining the station has been between $6,000 and $7,000 per year. Built on land leased from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the improvements will revert to that agency, which was asked by the council to raze the structures.
Transmitters used for police and fire radio systems will be moved by the city to the waterfront. Fire Chief Chester Moller has approved the lookout razing effective June 30, when the city's lease expires." (Oakland Tribune)
April 20, 1960: "Nobody's going to look out for Berkeley anymore.
Eagle-eyed Gene Smith is losing his tower, and the city will have to fend for itself.
Smith, 64, and his wife have lived in a compact, four-room fire tower rising 40 feet off Grizzly Peak for the past 18 years.
Smitty's job: spotting fires in the hills below. Fringe benefits: a beautiful vista that often brings into view snow-covered Mt. Lassen and no worries about neighbors looking in your windows. The Smiths don't even use window shades.
The landmark the Smiths call home has outlived its usefulness. After 36 years of operation, the tower has bowed to the efficiency of well-equipped fire departments in the area.
City officials figure abandonment of the tower will save taxpayers about $6,500 annually.
Smith will stay on the payroll, though, as the fire department's supply officer. And what a difference in duties.
In the years that he climbed the tower on the 1,759-foot peak, Smitty spotted 160 fires in the Berkeley Hills. It was a major blaze in 1923 that led to the construction of the tower.
Smith was the tower's third boss. His predecessor, Allen Chute, scanned the hills for 13 years until he had to move closer to school facilities for his youngsters. The first man on the hill was the late Harry Piper.
Now Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who have four grown children, are leaving, with the moving day set at June 30.
Berkeley's 'watchman' will miss watching deer grazing in his backyard and strolling along hillsides covered with golden poppies.
It was an idyllic 18 years." (Oakland Tribune)
Removed
The NGS Data Sheet
DESIGNATION - GRIZZLY PEAK LOOKOUT TOWER
PID - HT2560
STATE/COUNTY- CA/ALAMEDA
COUNTRY - US
USGS QUAD - BRIONES VALLEY (1993)
STATION DESCRIPTION
DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1962 (IRR)
THE STATION WAS RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION AND IS A STEEL TOWER
LOCATED ON THE SUMMIT OF GRIZZLY PEAK, AIRLINE ABOUT 1 MILE
EAST-NORTHEAST OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA CAMPUS AT
BERKELEY. IT WAS BUILT IN 1924 TO SERVE AS A FIRE LOOKOUT
TOWER AND IS 12 FEET SQUARE AT THE BASE, 7 FEET SQUARE AT THE
TOP, 34 FEET FROM THE GROUND TO THE FLOOR OF THE OPEN PLATFORM
ON TOP, 40 FEET TO THE TOP OF THE TOWER, AND IS PAINTED ORANGE
AND WHITE.
